1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to graphical user interfaces which are utilized in data processing systems, and in particular to graphical user interfaces which include components which are menu-formatted and include a plurality of menu fields.
2. Description of the Related Art
Increasingly, the data processing industry has gravitated toward the use of graphical user interfaces to allow for the interaction between an operator and a data processing system. Typically, the graphical user interfaces include textual components and iconographic components. Many types of graphical user interfaces utilize a menu format which includes a plurality of menu fields arranged in a particular display configuration with textual and/or iconographic representations of information presented to the operator for utilization in interacting with the data processing system. Conventional approaches to menu design in graphical user interfaces require that all fields available to the operator be displayed simultaneously on the menu. Typically, such conventional approaches allow little or no operator input in the design and display of the menu-formatted graphical user interface.
This rigidity complicates menu design and utilization in a number of ways. First, fields must be grouped and ordered on the menu, by product developers who may fail to realize and account for operational difficulties due to the particular layout and configuration of the menu fields. Certainly, little opportunity is provided in conventional graphical user interface design for end-user input prior to finalization of a product. The result may be a cumbersome menu-formatted graphical user interface which discourages, rather than encourages, utilization of the particular software product. Second, as end-user sophistication increases, and the utilization of multiple workspace environments such as multi-tasking environments to accomplish data processing objectives increases, menu-formatted type graphical user interfaces have become increasingly complex and large, frequently providing the end users with a virtual blizzard of hierarchical relationships, operating options, and displays which are confusing and counter-intuitive, and thus inherently less useful to the end user. It is not uncommon for end users to perceive software products with menu-formatted graphical user interfaces as being constructed in an arbitrary and non-useful fashion. For all these reasons, many software products are difficult to learn and utilize, and correspondingly require considerable operator commitment in developing a basic skill set for manipulating the software product and obtaining data processing objectives.
The continued utilization of menu-formatted graphical user interfaces is predicated upon continuing efforts to "streamline" the interface and eliminate the ambiguities, arbitrary display features, as well as minimize operator confusion and maximizing the average end user's ability to develop a basic skill set for utilization of the software product.